


Never mind my bruises

by do_it_to_julia



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ambiguity, Canon-Typical Violence, Consensual But Not Safe Or Sane, Hurt/Comfort, Knifeplay, M/M, Mind Control, Trauma, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-05-29 14:18:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15074951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/do_it_to_julia/pseuds/do_it_to_julia
Summary: For Mitaka Week 2018, day 3. In the wake of being choked by Kylo Ren, Mitaka has some difficulties.





	Never mind my bruises

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: (Day 3) “I don’t know how to say sorry the right way, so….here *thrusts at X*"
> 
> I've been a bit liberal with it, but the main idea - apologizing, badly - has been retained.
> 
> Please excuse this weird little fic that I don't entirely know what it's about.

Hux doesn't hear about the choking incident until after Starkiller's destruction. Then, in the back of the shuttle with an unconscious Kylo Ren only metres away, he watches Mitaka open his collar to a line of purple bruises below. It takes all his willpower not to storm over to the brute and strangle him where he sleeps.

He soon gains bruises of his own, from where Kylo Ren forces him to his knees in that battered throne room and assumes Snoke's title, but Hux is inured to violence in a way that Mitaka is not. Though they both endured the same kind of training, Mitaka has never been the recipient of anything so _personal_ before, and when Hux lays him down later and spreads bacta gel on the discoloured skin, the Lieutenant twitches at the gentlest touch.

"Am I pressing too hard?" Armitage asks him, a rare bubble of guilt rising in his throat, and Dopheld shakes his head.

"No. Sorry. It's just - uncomfortable."

Hux wants to lean down and kiss his bruises, but he knows that would be a terrible idea. Instead, he kisses Mitaka's lips, then his shoulders, then each nipple, and each side of his strong, pale chest until the muscles of his belly recede with anticipation and Hux is slipping his hands beneath the waistband of his loose off-duty bottoms. It's impossible for him to get hard until Hux is no longer on top of him, though, so instead they lie face to face and stroke each other off, bodies shivering into a tired, slick embrace.

Later, when Armitage curls up behind him and rests his chin on Mitaka's shoulder, the younger man frowns and moves away in his sleep.

* * *

The bacta takes care of the visible marks, but some other deeper injury has been left behind and Hux is not sure how to repair it.

They are not, as a rule, an emotionally open couple. Both favour actions, rather than words. The way Mitaka always has Hux's tea ready in the morning; the brush of Hux's fingers through Mitaka's hair as they're falling asleep. This new pain intrudes on their physical lives like a scar whose roots go deep between their bodies. The extent of it is not apparent until the night after Ren's inauguration, when they finally have enough energy to be intimate again.

It's been too long, and they both know it. Hux strips off his gloves as Dopheld kisses him, desperate and hungry, and his bare hands cup the Lieutenant's cheeks as Mitaka pulls off his own in turn. Belts fall away, fastenings, uniforms - neither even stops to fold their clothes this time, as they usually do. 

Hux, remembering how much Dopheld enjoys being dominated and cared for, presses him against the wall and ravishes his neck with kisses, and it takes a few moments of grinding senselessly against him before the realization sets in that Phel is no longer responding. Instead he's gone rigid, his cock soft between his legs, his breaths rapid.

"Phel?" Armitage swallows, pulls back. He feels abruptly afraid to touch him. Mitaka's eyes are screwed shut.

"I'm sorry," he manages. "You're not - hurting me, I just-"

"No. It's alright." Hux feels anger boil up inside him. Kylo _fucking_ Ren. Of course. Apparently it's not enough that this lumbering manchild should ruin every aspect of his working life, but now he's managed to get his big, stupid paws all over Hux's personal life as well. He takes a clearing breath, folds Dopheld into his arms when he finally gets the all-clear, and, once the Lieutenant is asleep, jerks off angrily in the fresher. It's about as enjoyable as sneezing.

* * *

Mitaka no longer enjoys being penetrated, which is fine, because Hux was always versatile anyway, and he doesn't seem to like having Armitage on top of him any more, which, alright, it's fine, Dopheld doesn't owe him anything, but he misses the feeling of having Phel under him nonetheless. And Hux has to take care now not to kiss or touch his neck, and sometimes at night he is woken by his lover's sleep-muffled shouts. He strokes his forehead and mutters comfort until the Lieutenant goes still once more.

It is not long before the Supreme Leader notices. Striding out of the throne room after a verbal report, Hux finds himself being held in place by a firm and invisible hand on his chest. He stops walking, suppresses a sigh. Ren's footfalls approach from behind.

"It's getting harder for you to disguise your hatred, General," he murmurs, moving round to Hux's front. Armitage meets his gaze evenly.

"I find it useful to keep my personal feelings separate from my work," he clips, allowing a slightly passive-aggressive tone into his voice. "I can assure you that whatever I might feel is none of your concern." 

Ren cocks his head.

"It's not just that. Something's changed," he murmurs, and before Hux can open his mouth to respond, there's a pressure inside his head, a kind of _reaching_. 

He's had Ren rummage around in there before, and though he's always been able to put up a fair fight, it never feels any less of a violation. This time, though, it is impossible to stop the images from being dragged to the forefront. Seeing that ring of bruises around Mitaka's neck again, the way he screwed his eyes shut that day against the wall, along with the knowledge that Ren is seeing all of this too, makes Hux feel nauseous. He's breathing hard when Kylo withdraws. 

"Interesting," is all Ren has to say. "You can go." 

Hux gives him a look of pure rage and then storms out, jaw clenched tight enough to ache.

* * *

"Did he say anything else?"

Mitaka is lying in his arms, back flush against his chest, expression inscrutable as he speaks. Hux's head rests against the pillow, a careful measure to ensure that he makes no contact with his boyfriend's neck.

"No. That was all. It may be best if you work from your quarters for the next few days, Phel." His hold tightens subtly, unconsciously anxious. "I'll have Phasma post extra security in the corridor outside."

"You really think he'd try something?" Mitaka asks quietly, craning back to look at him. Hux hesitates.

"It doesn't feel likely, but -" Hux can't explain why he still feels the impulse to protect Dopheld from something, as if Kylo Ren's very existence is a threat to him. "Just humour me. It'll make us both feel better."

Mitaka does not disagree.

* * *

"I can't help but notice, General, that your adjutant no longer accompanies you to these briefings. Why is that?"

Ren leans lopsidedly on the throne, one arm propped on the wide armrest, almost _lounging_. It feels like a kind of blasphemy. Hux tries to ignore the whisper of a smirk on Kylo's face, the feeling of being subtly mocked. Standing alone, he straightens his back and tries not to look as small as he feels.

"I think you know why, Supreme Leader," he replies. 

Ren's eyes flash with amusement. "Next time," he says, "Bring him with you."

* * *

He has Dopheld fitted for a monomolecular blade. Strapped against his right arm, with a release mechanism triggered by a slap to the outside of the elbow and a deliberate flex of the right wrist, like his own.

It won't do much to stop Kylo Ren, but it would feel far worse to do nothing at all.

Hux teaches Mitaka how to shield his mind from incursion, how to develop the mental instincts that will make it that little bit harder for Ren to breach his defences. It works for a whole three seconds.

"Lieutenant," Kylo orders smoothly from the throne, once Hux's usual briefing is delivered, "You will come closer and show me the concealed weapon in your right sleeve."

Mitaka looks at his General, uncertain and wide-eyed. "Sir?" he asks, his voice quiet and rising in pitch, before his expression gains the distant, enraptured mask of one compelled by the force. His head turns toward Kylo like that of a droid, and when the Supreme Leader repeats the order, he does not resist. "I will come closer and show you the concealed weapon in my right sleeve," he intones as he walks. Hux moves to try and hold him back, but his arm freezes by his side and his feet seem nailed to the ground.

"Ren!" he shouts, too incredulous now to pay lip service to Kylo's rank. Mitaka stops before the throne and obediently pulls up his sleeve, unstrapping the expensive weapon and offering it to Kylo hilt-first. The Supreme Leader takes it, examines it, lays it aside.

"Maybe not," he murmurs, and pulls a short knife out of his boot, a strangely fitting weapon for Ren despite - or perhaps because of - its crudeness. "You will place the tip of this blade at my throat," he says, holding it out.

"I will place the tip of this blade at your throat," Mitaka repeats. His hand closes around the weapon.

Hux can feel his heart pounding in his chest. He cannot see it from here, but it must be making the smallest of indents in Ren's flesh; he takes a breath and holds it, as if it is his own skin against the blade. Mitaka's posture shifts slightly, perhaps struggling against Ren's influence - then, dreamily, he drags the point from one side of Kylo's neck to the other, leaving a subtle red welt in its wake, although he draws no blood. Ren doesn't move. His eyes remain on Dopheld's face, dark and focused.

Unlike previous demonstrations of Ren's ability to control minds, there is no abrupt moment of realization, no subtle jolt of coming to ground. Mitaka simply hands the knife back in silence, and receives the monomolecular blade in return.

"My... apologies, Supreme Leader," Dopheld says. Ren leans back with a small wave of his hand.

"No need," he replies calmly. "You're dismissed."

Hux is too busy still processing all the leftover possibilities of that moment - accusations of treason, the flash of a lightsaber, orders for Mitaka to turn the blade on himself, on Hux - to form coherent words in his head as Mitaka hurriedly falls into step beside him, but at least he can finally breathe out.

* * *

They lie side-by-side on the bed, both too tired and stunned to say much at all until Dopheld breaks the silence.

"Lord Ren has a funny way of apologizing."

"Did it work?" is all Hux can think of to respond.

Mitaka rolls onto his side and puts an arm around Hux's shoulders, inching close to him. "It didn't make it all better, if that's what you mean. But I think it helped."

Hux looks at him and furrows his brow lightly. But Dopheld leans in to kiss him, then, and Hux does not resist.

His lover's fingers trail up and down the side of his neck, from collarbone to jaw, a pilgrimage. His fingernails catch lightly on the flesh.

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to Dragon, who helped me refine this, and Alot Ov Potatos, who suggested BB-9E should come in wielding "attachments".


End file.
